Oujia
by BMIK
Summary: Cloud, Reno and Vincent try to summon a ghost to help them with their history homework but what they have called might be more than they can handle... Sephiroth/Cloud, NSFW, co-written with funkysockzlover
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! Welcome to another fic^^ This is a story co-written by the wonderfully talented funkysockzlover (you might know her by her amazingly cute FFVII pics on deviantart! - if not, you should check them out now XD) and moi.**

**This is going to be some kind of humormysteryfluffhorrorlove fic. So be prepared :D**

**Funkysockzlover: Hello everyone, Im so excited to be writing something with the very lovely BMIK! I hope you like the adventure we take our boys on.**

**Well then, enjoy!**

**(Warnings: Fluff, Yaoi etc.**

**Disclaimer: Dis all Squeenix' stuff.)**

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><p><strong>Oujia<strong>

***Prologue***

"Not to piss on your party or anything... but there anything happenin' anytime soon?"

Vincent cracked open one of his closed eyes to glare at Reno from underneath the lid. In the eerie light of the candles that threw long, dark shadows onto the bare walls of the little cellar room Vincent's eyes appeared even more red and freaky.

The redheaded boy rotated his shoulder, unimpressed, but kept his finger on the wooden planchette that sat on their faded, old Ouija board. He hadn't thought that summoning demons and ghosts was that boring. Had he known he'd have dragged Cloud somewhere else.

"Shut up. You were the one pestering me about this" Vincent growled, closing his eyes and still managing to glare through shut lids. Amateurs. Had it not been for Cloud he'd have kicked Reno out six times already! And how dare Reno complain after he had gone through all the trouble 'borrowing' his crazy granddad's Oujia board?

Clearing his throat, he shifted a bit and mumbled something inaudible under his breath that sounded like some sort of incantation. Then he tensed, his dark wide garment (which actually was a bathrobe he had lend from his father for dramatic effect) slipping over his shoulder.

"Can you feel something?" he muttered in a low voice that bordered on a whisper, glancing at Cloud from under dark lashes.

Immediately, Cloud stiffened at the question. Did he feel something? Yes, he felt freaked out and more than a little panicked at what they were trying to do. When Reno had called and told him he had a "fuckin awesome" night planned for them both, he imagined it would involve walking from one end of the town to the other as they usually did, followed by a movie if they felt really wild.

He never would have dreamed that Reno would drag him to Vincent's house to try and contact the dead.

"Um..no." he finally answered, "Sorry..." He shifted a little in his seat and quickly glanced over at Reno to make sure there were no stray demons or angry spirits floating around trying to get inside his friends' head. That would be tough to explain to people.

Reno rolled his eyes, deciding that it was time for the fun part to start. He should have known that depressing, serious Vincent was not a good source of entertainment. Without a little help, at least.

"I feel something!" he suddenly whispered, and carefully pushing the planchette a bit. He could feel Vincent stiffen beside him in surprise and inwardly smirked.

"We have made a connection" the dark haired youth whispered importantly and sharply, before clearing his throat anew and mumbling something to the 'ghosts' about being grateful for their arrival and gracing such lowly humans as themselves with their presence.

Then, way more disrespectful and grumpy, he hissed at Cloud, "Ask them your question!" Gosh, he was so excited, this had never worked before! He should have worn the robe earlier.

Cloud was almost paralyzed with fear – Reno could feel something? He widened his eyes at him, he must have missed a sneaky spirit that could be trying to strangle Reno or slip a ghostly appendage around his waist and drag him back into the afterlife!

"Oh Gods..." Cloud whispered. Suddenly, he felt Vincent's boot connect with his leg under the table and, allowing with a glare directed his way, he remembered why they were here.

His question, he had a question...what was it again? Something to do with the history of the town – that was it. They wanted to contact a spirit who was alive years ago to tell them what their town had been like when it was founded, for their school project. Of course, Cloud didn't want to barge straight in with his reasons for being here and piss off any potentially insane spirit that could be in this room with them right now, so instead he decided to be his usual polite self.

"Um..hello." He began, trying to keep his voice from shaking, "H-how are you?"

It took Reno everything he had to not burst out laughing. Keeping a straight face he sneakily made the planchette move to the letters until they had formed the sentence 'WTF! I'm dead, how do you think I feel?'

Vincent frowned at that and muttered towards Cloud "Don't make the ghost angry! Ask something more... suited for a ghost." Not that he had any idea how to actually ask a ghost things. He wished he had his netbook down here, to search Wikipedia for a manual on how to properly interview the undead.

Something more suited for a ghost? What could that be? Cloud racked his brains for something that wouldn't make Vincent turn his scary red eyes to him again. He was still wary about pissing off the already annoyed ghost. Reno was no help, he looked as though he was shaking in his seat from the fear of having a ghost contact them.

An actual ghost!

Cloud sat up a little straighter in and looked at the space directly above the planchette. The ghost was surely hovering above that space right now. "I'm Cloud" he said, "What's your name?"

Reno didn't feel too creative, and just pushed the planchette onto the letter 'O'. He felt Vincent tremble with tension. He also wondered when Vincent's mom would come and bring them sandwiches and cake... his stomach was grumbling a little. Aand he yearned for a cigarette.

"Oh, great 'O'," gothic boy said in a ridiculously solemn voice, "May I ask a question, too?"

Reno inwardly shrugged and answered 'yes'. He wondered what Vincent could possibly ask their 'ghost'. It was probably something dark and depressing about people who bathed in the blood of virgins.

"Will I get the new Dynasty Warriors video game on the PS3 for Christmas?"

And Reno thought that he sounded disgustedly excited, too. He was just about to cruelly shift the planchette to the 'no' sign, when he felt a light ripple in the air around their fingers. He stiffened, but then he smirked. So Cloud wanted to have some fun too. He relaxed, leaving the answering to their blonde friend.

Cloud stared intensely at the board, waiting to see what the ghost would say. Could ghosts tell the future? If they were spirits and they could exist between their world and the human world, maybe they could go into the future too? Could they exist between planes? Between dimensions? Maybe he should ask if they would get an A in their project, or would that create some kind of paradox? Maybe he should just ask for help first...

Reno stared at Cloud, getting impatient. His small friend had a strange look on his face; the one he normally got when he was thinking about a difficult math problem or deciding what to eat for dinner staring into Reno's fridge that contained nothing more than some eggs, beer and candy. He reached out to move the planchette but he felt that ripple again. It felt...strange. Almost otherworldly. It couldn't be a gust of air since Vincent had closed all the windows and covered every source of light with a red or black cloth.

"Vince...you feelin' that, yo?"

"Of course I do," Vincent muttered, not happy that Reno was killing the vibes with his nonsense. He was still anxiously waiting for the answer to his question...

The planchette on the Ouija board moved and this time Reno knew for certain that it wasn't him! It was a lot faster too, the little piece of wood flying so fast over the letters that Reno had difficulties keeping his finger on it! In the end, they had a reply that read as followed:

''Nevermind that. How ya doin', boys?"

Cloud's train of thought was knocked right off its tracks when the planchette moved so quickly, and crashed right into his stream of consciousness when he saw what the ghost was asking. It wanted to know how they were doing? Then it was a friendly ghost after all! Relaxing into his seat, Cloud's confidence grew now that he knew they weren't sitting on an ancient burial ground full of angry ghosts with nothing better to do than eat curious kids who disturbed their sleep.

"We're all fine here," he said to the board. "We're all really excited to be talking to a real spirit!"

Vincent glowered at Cloud and his excitement. Didn't he know that ghosts didn't react well to overly chirpy chocobo heads? Although, now that he thought about it, the ghost didn't seem to be acting like a typical ghost either. Maybe he should ask him to move something in the room or shake the table around, that's what they always did in the movies that he'd seen.

Before he had time to demand some spirit action the planchette started flying over the board again, light scratching sounds filling the tense, dusty air.

'Yeah? Same here, you're a bunch of cuties! So, what's the plan for tonight? Having a pyjama party? I see no pyjamas. You gonna sleep naked?'

The silence that followed that statement was heavy and extremely awkward.

Reno's frown deepened as he stared at Oujia board and the slightly vibrating planchette, until finally he stated dryly into Cloud's direction, "Let's stop this. This ghost's just some undead pervert."

The wooden plate remained still for exactly one second before it moved to hectically assure, 'Just joking! ... So, you wanna know something? Ask me anything, really. I'm no one suspicious.'

Reading this from a ghost didn't make Reno all that confident in the trustworthy-ness of their spirit guest. Still he nudged Cloud in the side. "You gonna ask about the school project now, or what?"

Oh yes, the project! The whole reason they were here in the first place. Cloud tried not to think of a strange flirty ghost who was in the room with them, filling his head up with naked thoughts, and instead started thinking of his question.

"Um...Mr. Ghost..Mr. O" he began, "I was hoping you could tell us how old you are?"

A few seconds passed and there was no answer from the spirit, so Cloud felt the need to fill the silence with an explanation.

"You see, my friends and I are doing a project in school about our town and what it was like in the past, and maybe you could tell us if you lived there and what it was like, because it would be really cool to have some firsthand evidence from somebody who actually lived here in that time, and um, we tried the library but the librarian is really old and she thought Vincent was a demon and now we're banned, so um...could you help us?"

Cloud stopped talking once he noticed the death glares from his friends – from Reno because of his nervous babbling and from Vincent for telling the ghost about what had happened earlier today. Vincent began to hiss at Cloud again but once they heard the scratching of the wooden planchette they all looked down as one to the board.

The planchette shook a bit and hadn't Reno known any better he would have sworn he could hear someone chuckle. He stole a sneaky glance atound the room but there was no one here, just them and piles of junk that were neatly arranged on shelves along the back wall.

The wooden piece moved again, but a bit more thoughtful and slower this time. 'I'm afraid I'm no expert either. But I might know someone who is... you interested?'

Both Vincent and Reno turned to stare expectantly at Cloud. Vincent had mellowed out a bit and was no longer holding himself in such a haughty position, and Reno was sitting up straighter in his chair for the first time all night.

"Well?" they asked together.

"What? "Cloud squeaked, "You're leaving this up to me? Why? It's all of our project, we should all be involved in a decision like this!"

Reno rolled his eyes at his friend's dramatics. "Listen, yo" he began, "Think of it this way. It's like checkin' out a book at the library, but instead of a book it's a ghost, and instead of an index chapter you have to talk to them, and once you're finished with it you'll bring it back again. Ghost gone, we get an A, the end, nothin' to worry about."

Vincent nodded in support. "I feel it" he said, "I feel a positive presence..."

'Well?'

The ghost in the board seemed to get a bit impatient too. Vincent feared that he might leave if they didn't give their answer pronto, so he sent Cloud another imploring look. From the looks of it he should have been the one to interview the ghost, since he had the whole gothic thing going on with being all gloomy and dark and mysterious, but admittedly, now that they had an actual ghost here he didn't mind Cloud doing it. At all.

Cloud squirmed a little under the looks his friends were giving him. "Well..." he mumbled, "I guess if the ghost only stays for a little while and we get our answers quickly, there shouldn't really be a problem, right?" He thought for a moment and then directed his answer to the board.

"Alright" he nodded, "We're interested. Let's meet him."

The moment Cloud's words left his lips and their echo faded the temperature in the room dropped.

The candles flickered violently and the planchette on the Ouija board remained still. Reno couldn't even feel the soft vibrations anymore. Now it was nothing but a piece of dead wood.

There was no sign of their ghost anymore, just eerie silence. It seemed as if time had been frozen, but then the shadows darkened and broadened, the nervous light of the small candles swallowed by something unspeakable.

Suddenly a cold mist formed on the stony ground around the Ouija board where the three human boys sat, and it swirled into a grey pillar of chaos, breaking against the ceiling. Out of the smoke peeled a black figure, their silhouette only visible at first. The creature was humanly shaped and big and when finally the fog dissipated, a black wing stretched from the man's back. It was wet and oily with blood that dripped from the huge feathers. The man's face was obscured by cascades of long hair, but one single eye with a slitted pupil peered out at them, piercing and sharp and not amused.

Apparently their interviewee was none too pleased about being trapped here with a bunch of school kids in a cramped, dusty basement somewhere in suburbia.

His eyes roamed over the three young boys that had called him away from very urgent matters and settled on the smallest of the three, the one who summoned him.

The one he was bound to.

Sephiroth stared with power and fury radiating from his very being, and the blonde gaped back out of wide, startlingly blue eyes.

And then Cloud fainted.

TBC?

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><p><strong>Sooo, what do you think? That a good start? We always appreciate feedback, comments and critique so don't hold back XD<strong>

(BTW: We are looking for a beta who'd like to help us editing this story! If you're interested send me a PM please, thanks! ^^)


	2. Chapter 2

**Good evening you wonderful people! Your feedback blew us away so much that we just had to get together again and bring you a new chapter XD We hope you enjoy it, and thank you very much for your support, we are delighted to have it!**

Sephiroth, Reno: BMIK

Cloud, Vincent: Funkysockzlover

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><p><strong>Oujia<strong>

***Chapter 1***

"Hey dude...come on dude, wake up!"

Everything felt groggy inside Cloud's head, almost as though a thick dense fog had settled down on his brain. He tried to sit up but needed to lie down again almost immediately, groaning as he rubbed the top of his head. Why did it hurt so much? Did he fall off his chair and bump his head off the stone floor of wherever they were –

Wait.

Stone floor? Where was he, exactly? He tried to cast his mind back to what had happened to him but his memory was still hazy. He shook his head in an effort to shake away the fuzzy feelings and almost as soon as he tried, he was assaulted with memories moving so fast he could only focus on them for a split second before they were replaced by another.

They were at Vincent's house –

He had an old Ouija board –

Reno saying it would be fun –

Vincent talking to thin air –

The planchette moving all by itself –

And mist, a terrifying swirl of mist that summoned a monster, a monster with a huge wing dripping in blood and an eye, a single green eye that stared at him. It seemed to pierce his very soul...what had happened then?

He tried again to wake up, forcing himself up, only to find two pairs of curious eyes staring back down at him.

"Oh good, you're awake, yo" Reno sighed, "I was afraid I'd have to carry you home! You look heavy, dude."

Vincent nodded to himself as he sat back. "You fainted just as our ghost was about to summon his friend." He stared a little accusingly at Cloud. "You must have scared it off."

"Yeah, it's gone," Reno frowned, throwing Vincent a dubious look. That guy was a genius at keeping a straight face, Reno very much suspected him in having successfully fooled them.

And poor Cloud had become so frightened that he fainted like a bloody girl!

Patting his still dizzy friend on the back and trying to help him up from the dusty floor, Reno wondered if it had been such a good idea to do this. Not that he believed in ghosts, but Vincent and now Cloud seemed to be pretty into that crap. A tiny ugly feeling of guilt started to stir in his chest, gnawing at his flesh.

"There ain't no ghost, yo, I moved the thing," he finally assured Cloud in a mumble, just in case their sensitive friend would be knocked out cold by fear again.

Only mere inches away from him and unseen to either Reno or Vincent, the winged man slowly turned his head, steely jade eyes scanning the surroundings with sharp precision, and finally settled back on the boys. The flickering light of the candles illuminated his form only partially and mainly cast him in shadows, making his appearance even more eerie and strangely intangible.

Vincent shivered in the slight dampness of the cellar. Maybe he had left a window open without noticing, or maybe it was the remains of their ghost friend. He didn't care what Reno said (even though he was pissed off that he had been deceived), he had definitely felt _something_.

"Come on, Cloud" he said, bending down to wrap an arm around Cloud's waist, "Time to go. Let's go upstairs and watch a movie and never speak of this to anyone." He tried to pull his small friend up but he was like a dead weight as he stared off into space with a still terrified look on his face. Vincent sighed and shot Reno an annoyed look. "Help me with him, Reno!"

"Hey, chocobo head!" Reno waved his hand in front of Cloud's eyes but it didn't help anything. Cloud was still transfixed, staring at a totally bland and boring spot in the middle of the room.

"Let's get you upstairs. Vince, your mom should make him one of her disgusting herbal teas, I bet that'll bring him back in a second." It had the ability to wake the fucking _dead_, that's how disgusting her tea was! Shivering from the memory that had been carved into the core of his soul and left an ever festering wound, Reno pushed all thoughts of Vincent's batshit crazy family and their freaky customs out of his mind. Fortunately for them they were at some witchcraft conference to bring upon the zombie apocalypse or something, Reno hadn't listened. He didn't really want to either; all he knew was that Vincent was the least nutty offspring of that family and that was saying _a lot_.

The man with the wing was now done inspecting his surroundings and the three of them, turning his attention solely towards Cloud with a look of silent fury. His voice rung ice cold through the tiny cellar, freezing everything to the bone.

"Did you summon me."

Cloud couldn't speak, he couldn't move, he was completely hypnotized by the figure in front of him. He hadn't been dreaming, they had summoned a ghost – no, a monster.

A monster from his nightmares.

When he opened his mouth to speak Cloud could only squeak in response. He couldn't tear his gaze away from the thing's eyes; he had never seen anything like them before. They were cold and almost dead but there was something there, hiding out of sight, that reminded Cloud of a tiny beam of light trying to penetrate an almost never ending darkness.

These eyes were making him poetic.

Before he could even begin to think about answering the ghost monster thing, he was dragged to his feet by firm, ignorant hands and lead out the door, up some stairs and into Vincent's kitchen, but he never once took his eyes off the man that followed him swiftly.

The creature followed calmly. He was in no hurry, even though being summoned here was very inconvenient. However there was no way that Sephiroth would miss the opportunity to see that human writhe and scream in pain that he would receive from the demon's hands for the insolance of disturbing him.

From what the demon had gathered in the very short amount of time he was here this human was no powerful witch, exorcist or medium - he was an amateur. They were just a bunch of very stupid and very unlucky kids that had played around with black magic – and, unfortunately for them, succeeded.

The Oujia board was old and powerful enough to draw in weak spirits, but it shouldn't have drawn him in. And clearly those boys had no spiritual powers whatsoever, save for the blond one, who had called to Sephiroth. It must have been a spontaneous outburst of spiritual energy at the wrong time. That happened sometimes, though rarely. This could be the only explanation because that blond boy had no experience and no idea how to handle a summon. To put it mildly.

In fact, he looked incredibly weak and extremely terrified.

The creature decided that he would follow for now until they were alone, then have the boy experience a slow and painful death for inconveniencing him and also to prevent such a thing from ever happening again. Then he would go back and take care of his business.

For now it entertained him to see the boy shivering, though, and so he said in an even icier tone, his stony expression allowing no objection, "Answer!"

'Oh Gods, oh Gods, oh Gods...' Cloud's panicked thoughts were all rolling into each other until he could barely hear any of his own thoughts and oh gods why was the monster staring at him like that, like he wanted to end his life right here and now and what should he say, what could he say to avoid dying...

While Cloud was busy having a mental breakdown Vincent had dropped his mythic summoner role and was acting like his normal self again. Well, as normal as he could act, at least. He continued to brew one of his mother's teas that would warm Cloud up and hopefully snap him out of whatever trance he was in that was causing him to squeak and tremble and stare without blinking for the last few minutes.

"Here..." he said, pouring the tea into a cup, "Drink this. It'll make you feel better." He tried to push the cup into Cloud's hands but he was refusing to react. He was about to suggest finding a funnel to make Cloud drink but quite suddenly Cloud began to speak.

"W-we...we s-summoned you..." he said in a quiet, wobbly voice.

To the wall.

Vincent and Reno gave each other a worried glance. Was Cloud trying to scare them?

"I think... you've had enough for today," Reno announced, clearing his throat and gently pulling Cloud away from the wall. To Vincent he whispered, "I'll get him home. It was a long day... and we better not mention that to his mom or she'll skin us alive."

He grabbed Cloud's jacked and managed to pull it over Cloud's limp arms. The blond's hands were so cold... Reno frowned and rubbed them a bit, but then shrugged. "I'll take the tea in a thermos flask."

With satisfaction Sephiroth noticed the cracking in the boy's voice. He hadn't been to the human realms in over 250 years, so it was good to see that he hadn't lost his touch.

"Why?" he growled, barely keeping his eyebrows from shooting up in amusement as the tormented boy nearly flinched out of his skin. Ah, he'd forgotten how fun it was to torture humans! And he hadn't even started yet...

While he poured the murky tea into a flask Vincent shivered at the thought of Mrs. Strife finding out he might have scarred Cloud for life and what she might do to him. And to Reno too of course, since this whole night had been that insufferable redhead's idea in the first place. Cloud's mom dealt with big animals all the time and he was sure she'd have no trouble dealing with two skinny kids who had damaged her only child... He emptied the cup and handed the flask to Reno who was trying to warm Cloud up; his fingers had nearly turned blue with the cold.

Vincent crossed his arms. He was feeling a little cold himself... "Take care of him, alright? Maybe the cellar was damper than I thought and he's getting a cold."

Cloud was still staring at the same spot on the wall as Reno lifted him up and tried to push him out of the kitchen.

"I'm sorry!" he said shakily, "I'm sorry we brought you here! It was an accident! Please don't be mad at us!" As he was dragged outside, Vincent could still hear his whimpers over Reno's jokey voice trying to calm him down. He watched them stumble through his overgrown front garden with concern but then went back inside to clean up, before his granddad found out that he had stolen his precious Oujia board and did painful things to him.

"C'mon Cloud," Reno mumbled as he dragged Cloud down the empty, dark street. It was already pretty late and he would have to be home soon too, or his mom'd throw a hissy fit. "You can drop the act now. Man, you saw Vincent's face? He almost pissed his pants, yo!" Reno chuckled, but it sounded uncertain and slightly hysterical. Cloud was a good actor, he had almost convinced Reno too. At least Reno hoped so.

Sephiroth followed suit, his movements so controlled and powerful that it appeared as if he was _floating _through their world. Only now, as they passed a flashing, dying street light that momentarily chased away the shadows could the demon be seen in all his hellish glory. He was tall, wearing dark, tightly fitting pants and overknee boots with silver straps. His chest remained bare. The material of which his garment was made looked heavy and was so black that it just seemed to swallow all light entirely. Long silver hair swayed behind him as if it had an angry life of its own. The demon's white alabaster skin was splattered with some streaks of dark blood, up to his cheek. His humanoid features seemed the epitome of cruel beauty and regal perfection.

Sephiroth flapped his heavy wing in a menacing manner, as if to wipe the light off. "What did you want." It was no question but an order to talk, and quick.

As he stared at the summon, transfixed, Cloud could hear Reno talking to him but he couldn't focus on that right now, not when a half naked demon was following him, demanding answers.

Why was he focusing on the half naked part anyway?

"U-um..." he began, twisting around in Reno's grasp, "W-well, we were talking to someone who said t-they knew someone who could help us with our p-project, our project about the history of our town, about w-what it was like when it was founded...h-he said you could help us! Please don't be mad!"

"Uhm Cloud... you can stop now. Vincent's not here anymore." Reno tried to make Cloud look at him, by grabbing his face, but Cloud just turned his head back over his shoulder, staring at something behind them. Now this was getting... ceepy. Shuddering, Reno stared into the darkness behind them too, but there was nothing but houses, fences and the occasional fat cat.

The boy's answer made Sephiroth pause, but only for a split second.

This town...

He shoved the thought aside, his attention focused on the boy in front of him.

"Who were you talking to."

Just as he had thought, those brats had had help. There was no way those weaklings could have summoned _him_...

That boy was still gaping at Sephiroth, but his gaze had become slightly glassy now and was stuck somewhere between the demon's throat and navel. Maybe it was the odd light but Sephiroth thought he could see something liquid glistening at the corner of Cloud's lips that reminded him of... drool.

Frowning, Sephiroth snapped his finger in the boy's face, barking in a military tone, "Focus!"

Cloud snapped to attention when the creature made that sudden noise. It sounded like he was used to giving orders so Cloud felt like he should salute him. But at the same time, he didn't want to stop moving - maybe once he got home he could go to sleep and wake up in the morning and find that he lived a normal life with friends who dressed in normal clothes and who he could take to the library and take out normal books and ghosts didn't come back from wherever it was they went.

Cloud was going to answer the demon/ghost/poster boy-thing. Really. He was going to tell him all about Mr. O, the ghost who seemed so friendly. But when he realised how close the creature was to him now... he couldn't think about very much anymore. He was still scared senseless but since he had decided this was nothing more than a crazy dream he was having as a result of the candy filled omelette he and Reno had eaten earlier, he figured it wouldn't cause too much harm if he stared a little while longer...

Sephiroth snipped his finger again, a lot more impatient this time, to get the runt's attention. The boy kept staring, blatant and unashamed, almost making Sephiroth feel uncomfortable and... naked. The one thing the demon could assess from his short visit so far was that since his last visit humans had become a lot more rude.

"I see you don't feel like cooperating," he observed coolly from above, straightening to his impressive, full height, accidentally making the taut muscles on his belly ripple. "I will just end it and kill you then."

...Kill?

The second Cloud heard those words he panicked, and when Cloud panicked, as anyone who knew him would have told the creature, he babbled.

"Oh Gods, don't kill me! I'll stop staring, I can't help it, it's just I didn't think Vincent, that's my friend back at the house who owns the cellar with the board that we were using to talk to you and Mr. O, I didn't think he'd actually be able to communicate with ghosts and spirits and...and whatever you are, and Reno, that's my friend here, he said it would be the best way ever to find out about the history of our town and what it was like, and it's for our history project for school and I'm really really interested in finding out more about it, and Reno's mom told him he needs an A in this project and I'm sorry we disturbed your sleep and everything, but if you could just tell us enough then you can go right back home again and nobody has to kill anyone, haha..."

Gradually Sephiroth's expression slipped into a mask of disbelief and blankness, as he had difficulty following the boy's quickly stammered monologue. He didn't get half of it and in the middle of the rant he briefly zoned out, but came back with a little jerk when the brat started laughing in a high pitched, panicked manner. It made him want to cringe.

It also really made him want to kill that boy.

"School project," he instead repeated slowly.

Could they POSSIBLY get any more impertinent?

"Do you know who I am?" he asked darkly, having a suspicion that the human had no idea who he was actually dealing with.

"We'll be home soon," Reno muttered, staring to the ground and walking faster, hoping that no one saw him with Cloud speaking to the thin air in a super dramatic and super embarrassing manner.

It made the blonde struggling to keep up with Reno. He was almost walking backwards and had to hop a little when the redhead sped up suddenly, but then he noticed they were almost home. Well, Reno's home. This was great, soon they would be upstairs and he could stay in the spare room and he could finally relax, and when he woke up in the morning this whole experience would be over!

Cloud looked back up at the tall creature that was following him. Was it his imagination or did he look pretty mad right now? Oh Gods, please don't be mad, maybe he could explain again? It wasn't Cloud's fault that he didn't know who that guy was, how was he supposed to know? How could he have known? They had never met before...

"I'm sorry, but I don't know you..." Cloud began a little breathlessly, "But I'm sure if you just tell me your name I can find out more about you, I can't go back to the library for a while but my friend Vincent has a computer and he knows how to find anything online so we could always ask him to search for you and then I'll know who you are, or you could just tell me, I mean whatever is easiest for you, I don't want to upset you, and I'm really sorry but if you could please just tell me a little about yourself you can go home again..."

Before Sephiroth could get dizzy from another onslaught of drivel and decide to finally end this conversation by stabbing his sword into the boy's blue eye Reno decided that really, he needed to shut Cloud up. Either that or he would have to explain to his choleric mom why Cloud was making conversation with the thin air...and he didn't want that. His mom had the tendency to always blame Reno, for everything.

Thus the witty boy grabbed Cloud's face, with both hands this time. Taking a deep breath he furrowed his brows in determination and then stuck his tongue into Cloud's open mouth, effectively shutting him up.

Cloud squeaked again but Reno's kiss had the desired effect and he stopped speaking mid babble. He would have stayed completely still but he was shoved through a door, down a hall, and into a room where he was pushed down onto a soft bed. As soon as Reno pulled away from him Cloud took a huge breath of air and stared at him with shock and surprise in his eyes.

"Reno? Why did you kiss me? I was right in the middle of something really important!"

But then everything became clear to Cloud – of course Reno kissed him! This was a dream where nothing made sense, where the dead walked around snapping their fingers in people's faces in a very rude manner indeed. People must have been much ruder back when this man was still alive.

"Yeah, I saw that. And before anyone else could see it I thought I'd save your sorry ass," Reno replied wryly, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and cleaning his tongue by pressing it against the palm of his hand. Just in case the crazy was contagious Reno snatched a bottle of water from behind the door and gurgled.

"You okay now?" he finally asked, holding the bottle towards the blond. The room was small and simple with a simple futon lying next to the wall, a little lamp and a small drawer. This chamber was usually occupied by Cloud when he came for a sleepover or simply when he didn't want to be alone at night. Living in your own apartment might sound like a fucking blast, but in all actuality, it wasn't... not when you had to clean it up, do the dishes and laundry all by yourself and sit at the kitchen table for dinner, alone.

"You talked like a crazy person." Reno lowered his voice, momentarily distracted by a sound that came from the door. When he looked to the floor his palm met his forehead as he moaned in misery and he picked up the single condom his mother had 'discreetly' slipped there. He had hoped she didn't see them.

"Dis all your fault, yo," Reno accused morosely, putting the condom into his pocket. Just in case. You never know.

Cloud didn't really feel like talking anymore. He was glad Reno had taken him here for the night, he really didn't want to be alone right now. Even if it _was_ a dream...he still preferred to have Reno next door. He took the bottle of water that Reno offered him and took a sip. His mouth had gotten pretty dry after all that talking, and he was nearly breathless after trying to keep up with Reno.

"What's my fault?" he asked, a little sleepily "M'not crazy..."

Sephiroth was very much inclined to disagree. What the hell was _wrong_ with these kids? In _his _day and age children had shown respect and obedience to their elders and if they hadn't it had been beaten into their very bones! Where had discipline and order gone?

And how DARE they IGNORE HIM!

The air around Sephiroth swirled menacingly, his hair furiously fanning out like deadly

tendrils as the light in his demon eyes glowed frighteningly.

Unimpressed by the display of raw demon rage that he couldn't see, Reno pushed Cloud into the mattress and picked up the blanket to wrap it around Cloud and trap him in the bed. "Yeah. Sure. You're as sane as they come. Just do me a favour: if my mom asks about that tongue action tell her we had a night full of passionate butt sex."

Served that curious bitch right.

Cloud could just about hear what Reno was saying as he relaxed back into the comfort that the futon offered up to him. He thought he could make out more swirling fog coming from the corner of the room (_Good_, he thought to himself, _maybe that's a sign that this dream is finally coming to an end) _as he buried under the covers and hid from the world where everyone was crazy but him.

Reno smiled down at Cloud as all the answer he got from him was deep breathing and some drool dripping onto the cushion. Chocobohead looked adorable when he curled into a ball under the blanket, his sleeping face peaceful and relaxed. Scratching his neck and then shrugging, Reno stretched and left to go to bed early, shutting the door in the face of one flabberghasted demon lord.

tbc?

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><p><strong>FYI, we are doing the review replies for every chapter here, so we can talk a bit to each other, because that is the best part about publishing a story: you get to meet so many amazing people! <strong>

**So here goes^^**

funkysockzloverreplying/_BMIK replying_

fantasi88 – Don't worry, there's going to be lots more where this came from! _Hahaha, no, that is not the end, that would be really crappy, right? XD There's going to be more :)_

UTShadow – I'm glad you like it so far! Chocobohead is going to very skittish during this adventure! _Oh yes, and it also sounds like a lot of stress and hilarious fits! XD_

NamiFukao – Aww I'm so glad to hear that you like this! It was lots of fun to write, the poor boys want an A in their project pretty badly to think of using an Oujia board! Hopefully there'll be an answer to all of your questions very soon :D _Same here, I'm happy to hear that you liked it! Well, Vincent does look a bit uhm... gloomy and demonic, it's the cross he has to bear, poor thing ;) So we hope you will have lots of fun with this little story, as do we!_

Tobirion – Thank you! It's fun having these three together! Cloud can be the voice of reason for the other two, unless of course ghostie Seph starts causing him trouble XD _Yay, glad you like it! Well, asking a ghost to do their homework for them is an idea only Reno can come up with, Vincent has the means to call the ghosts and Cloud... well, Cloud is cute, he has to talk to them and do the interview XD Thanks for reviewing!_

BlackDomina71 – I'm glad to hear you're interested! I hope you stick around till the end ;) _Haha, me too! We have a lot of ideas already, can't wait to upload them for you^^_

hayakatsu – Yes, this is our first time writing something together and it's been so much fun so far! BMIK is fabulous with her imagery. _Oh wow, that's a first, thank you! I feel a bit special now 3 Hehehe, yes, it's our first collab and I am very excited! The ideas just keep coming and maybe also because this is a humour fic we don't need to get too much into the characters' situations and background yet. So it's a bit more fast-paced^^ I hope we can pull of the mix of humor and horror, in any case I believe we will have fun with this fic!_

IA1979 – We have lots more planned, you don't need to worry there! _Yes, there is lots more to come XD And thank you, I am not sure if we need a beta... but rereading the chapter I still found mistakes and it irks me a bit XD_

Fireotaku18 – Thanks so much! _Thank you! Hopefully the new chapter is good too!_

The Cocky Bitch – I'm delighted that you're liking it so far, and I love all the details that you picked up on :D I don't think Reno could pass up the opportunity to annoy Vincent! I know it's a big question mark of a story right now but all those questions will be answered soon enough! _I hope we can pull it off too, but I am really excited for this fic and writing it is so much fun, so it's already awesome! The questions will be answered soon, promise ;)_

Joker-Reloaded I don't think Cloud will ever stop fainting at the sight of Sephiroth wandering around the place! _I wonder too, he'll have to put some effort into it to keep Cloud from fainting XD_

dawn chase – I think I'd be scared too if he appeared in such an evil way. But then I'd take my camera out and have him pose for me! XD _Dito! I'd do the whole fainting thing like Cloud- and then go into crazy fangirl mode!_

viu – Yay, I'm glad you like it! We have a lot more planned for them. _ Yupp, more to come soon, so be prepared!^^_

SoyaPie – Haha, I love how everyone hears the word "pervert" and thinks of Zack straight away! Whoever it was was trying to be funny and lighten the mood but I think it might have backfired a little XD _Perverts are everywhere, there's no safe plaaace O_o We'll find out soon who that ghost was XD Thanks for reviewing!_

Emriel - Thanks so much, Im glad you like what's happening so far! _Dito, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter too^^_

**We hope you liked the new chapter! Poor Cloud is making things worse, and now he fell asleep on an irate demon! Will he make it through the night or will Reno find Cloud shish kebab in his futon the next morning?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Happy weekend everyone! We bring a new chapter for your pleasure and hope you enjoy it :)**

**funkysockzlover: Cloud, Vincent**

**BMIK: Reno, Sephiroth**

**We shared Vincent's creepy granny**

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><p><strong>Oujia<strong>

***Chapter 3*_  
><em>**

Bacon.

Cloud could smell bacon.

It must be coming from Reno's kitchen; his mom should have bought him some supplies to last the week, which meant no more candy omelettes, thank goodness.

He stretched out in his futon and untangled his legs from the blanket as he did so. He couldn't wait to tell Reno about the crazy dreams he had a last night. A dream with smoke and kissing and a very angry demon...Cloud sat up and blinked a few times as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the bright light that was shining in the window. Yawning, he turned away from the light and to a darker patch of the room, towards a corner that was cast in an unusually dark shadow.

A shadow that was currently hiding a demon.

Cloud gasped and fell back onto the floor as he scrambled towards the other side of the room to put as much distance between himself and the monster as possible. "I'm dreaming" he said aloud, "I'm still dreaming, that's the only explanation here, I'm dreaming, there isn't a monster in my room, wake up, wake up..."

"Shut. Up."

The demon in the corner snapped with barely suppressed rage and frustration. The demon's pupils were narrowed into thin slits and his elegant eyebrows almost met because of the intensity with which he scowled at the insufferable human!

Sephiroth would have threatened the kid to kill him if he didn't stop hyperventilating_ this instant,_ had it had any substance. As it was Sephiroth had to find out last night that, in fact, he was not capable of killing the runt. And the demon gods knew he had given it all! No matter how he had tried, whether it be with his infamous longsword, his demon powers or his bare hands (and it had been centuries since he had tried to strangle someone to death!), he couldn't get a hold of the freaky little human! But the worst thing Sephiroth had to find out, after he had given up slaughtering the brat and wanted to quietly retreat in disgrace: he couldn't.

He couldn't go back to the demon world.

In all actuality – he could not go farther than 10 feet away from the blond, blue-eyed pest! As soon as he had reached a certain distance it was like walking against an invisible wall and he hadn't been able to find out what kind of vicious spell bound him to the human so he could undo it! Nor had he been able to contact one of his minions.

"Why", he growled, his voice a deep, harsh rumble in the back of his throat. "Why is it that I cannot leave?"

Cloud continued to tell himself he was dreaming, but also tried to slow down his breathing once he noticed the ferocious glare that the demon was shooting him. He took a few deep breaths and tried to speak.

"Um. Hi." Was that a good place for him to start? "Um... I don't know why you can't leave...do you need me to open the door for you? Can't you just go through the walls?"

If he was a ghost or a spirit or a demon, surely he should just be able to float away from here or disappear in a cloud of swirling black mist like the night before? Cloud groaned to himself as he realised that last night wasn't in fact a dream, that the creature in his room was really here.

"Who was that ghost you were talking to last night" Sephiroth growled, barely restraining himself from throttling the brat. It would only add to his shame when he failed at causing the hated creature any harm. It was clear as day that the stupid boy had no idea what was going on. It couldn't have been him to form such a strong bond. He must have had help. A tiny part of Sephiroth that he consequently ignored for the moment did notice though how impolite the brat was. Hadn't he learnt to introduce himself properly or what? Last time Sephiroth checked that was a vital part of human interaction, but then again that had been a few hundred years ago...

Cloud backed up farther against the wall when the creature growled at him. Didn't he know it was impolite to _growl_ at someone? Even though he was still surprised by the rudeness of the creature, he could feel his nerve slip under the fierce looks being sent his way.

"H-his name was Mr. O, I think..." he began, "Which is a strange name for a ghost if you ask me, but I have never been properly introduced to a ghost before so I don't know what kind of names they have. Do you know him? Does he know you? He said you could help with our town history, that's why he summoned you. He was really nice."

Cloud forced himself to stop his nervous babbling in case it made the creature angry. Again.

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed further. He knew of no ghost or demon going by the name of 'Mr. O', and he certainly would have known about anyone strong enough to bind him. Admittedly, Sephiroth had been in the middle of something, his guard down, and thus it had been easier to trap him. But even so it should not have been much of a problem to undo the spell once he was aware of it.

No, something powerful must have done this, someone who knew him. Well. As soon as he knew who it was and how to break the spell Sephiroth would make sure that whoever had made him suffer through a night of sitting next to a violently snoring human, which he could neither kill nor get away from, would die a horrible _horrible_ death!

"Call him." Sephiroth ordered, feeling a headache coming on.

Call him?

"O-okay." Cloud nodded, "But we'll have to go to my friend Vincent's house to do that. He was the one with the Ouija board and he knows how to talk to ghosts. He talked to Mr. O yesterday and then he said he knew you, and he said some other things too... But that's not important, let me go get Reno and we can go to Vincent's house and we can send you back to wherever it is you come from."

As he spoke, Cloud gradually shimmied his way across the room to make it towards the door, and as soon as he could crossed into the hallway, he stood and hurried away.

Sephiroth couldn't help but follow the boy, which was incredibly humiliating for a demon of his calibre. And he was such a proud, powerful creature too.

"Do not mention my presence," he threatened, because he had no desire to deal with more stupid humans. One of them was one too many already.

As soon as Cloud had nodded his agreement ("How could I not mention him?" he thought, "Reno is going to see him as soon as we walk into the room") he hurried into the kitchen. Reno was whistling to himself as he continued to pile two plates high with food. Cloud's stomach started grumbling at the sight.

"Morning Reno" he said, "Um..do you think we could go back over to Vincent's today? Maybe he can summon a ghost that will be able to help us this time."

"Still didn't get enough of it yesterday?" Reno frowned, flipping the pancake with practiced ease. It turned midair and fell back into the pan upside down. The kitchen was a mess, but that was old news. An overflowing ashtray was pushed aside as Reno put down a plate on the kitchen table, regarding Cloud with a look to sit down. "Ya got pretty spooked last time we did that shit yo. And I ain't gonna drag your heavy ass around again." He lifted a brow to make his point.

Cloud sat down and picked a surprisingly clean fork from behind a tower of eggs. He must have been feeling much groggier than he remembered for Reno to go all out and clean things for him.

"Sorry you had to drag me around, Reno" he began, while poking at some crispy bacon. Some _very_ crispy bacon. "But you know, I think maybe I was coming down with something and I feel much; much better after a good night#s sleep, and I think I had worked myself up into a tizzy and that's why I was so worried, and it was the worry that made me faint and not an actual ghost, because I don't know if there was a ghost there besides Mr.O and he wasn't scary at all. He was nice." Cloud stopped talking for a few minutes to stuff one of the pancakes Reno slid onto his plate into his mouth. As soon as he finished chewing, he looked expectantly up at Reno again. "So...can we go? And if it gets scary we can leave, and I promise you won't have to carry me around again. And I'll buy you a coffee."

Reno sat down on his chair backwards, leaning his chin on the backrest and started to massacre his pancake. "You really believe that ghost crap? I bet it was Vincent the whole time, freakin' bastard prolly collapsed in hysterics after we left." Picking up a piece of pancake with his bare fingers, Reno threw his head back and let it fall into his open mouth.

Sephiroth gave Cloud a pressing look, silently ordering him to be more convincing!

Cloud noticed the look the creature gave him from the corner of his eye. He was doing a great job at keeping out of sight, all he was doing was standing in the hall beside the doorframe and Reno hadn't said a word!

"Well, you know, we should keep an open mind" he said, "and besides", he pointed his egg covered fork at Reno, "when Vincent came up with the idea of summoning the dead, YOU told him it was a, and I quote, 'fuckin' awesome idea, yo'."

He leaned forward in his seat. "Think of how happy my mom will be when she sees's that we got an A together! It'll boost your average up really well so you won't have to go to those summer classes and nobody else will be able to get an interview with a ghost so ours will be the best ever. But I think we need to contact Mr. O again so we can ask him for help since it didn't work yesterday. And I don't think Vincent would have lied to us about something like this."

At the mention of 'summer class' Reno flinched visibly and slumped in defeat. "A'right yo, I'll text him. But don't you dare freak on me again!" With one hand Reno accusingly pointed a piece of pancake at Cloud, with the other he quickly wrote a text message on his cellphone to Vincent.

Meanwhile Sephiroth, knowing that his business was being taken care of, had lost interest in their conversation and slowly walked into the kitchen. His eyes scanned the various towers of dirty dishes and food ingredients lying half-opened about. What he found even more intriguing and confusing than the chaos (which was also pretty disgusting, even from a demon's standpoint) was the strange machinery that littered the room. Cloud nodded happily as Reno began to text Vincent (which must be difficult with such greasy fingers) so he continued eating all the food that was making him feel much better about the fact that there was a demon in the kitchen with them. He loaded his fork up with pieces of pancakes and syrup and munched happily, but almost chocked at the sight of the creature wandering around.

What...what the HELL did he think he was doing?

He couldn't just...just WALK into the kitchen being all topless, he was RIGHT behind Reno, he was going to see him and how was Cloud going to explain this situation? Why did the demon bother growling at him, warning him not to mention him, if he was going to walk around looking at the toaster like it was some kind of weapon?

Hadn't he ever seen a toaster before?

To his chagrin Sephiroth had to find out that he could not touch any solid thing in the human world, safe for the ground he was walking on. He felt a strong desire to pick up the weird things that lay around to inspect them closer (though then again as he saw a big piece of dried up maccaroni clinging stubbornly to a device that made loud humming noises he reconsidered - he wouldn't have wanted to touch that even if he could).

"Somethin' wong?" Reno asked with his mouth full, just briefly pausing before stuffing even more food into himself to the point where his cheeks were blown up like little balloons. He turned his head to see what Cloud was starring at, but there was nothing but the usual chaos.

"No wowwies, mum'll clean dat up. Pwolly."

Cloud knew from past experiences that he often stared at Reno's kitchen in shock and horror, but this time he was staring at something much worse. Could Reno not see what he was seeing? At least the creature wasn't trying to pick things up to murder them with.

He decided to test something out "Hey Reno?" he asked as he swallowed, "What's that thing beside the blender?" The creature was standing right beside it, there was no way Reno could miss him!

Again Reno turned his head, frowning and then looking back at Cloud as if he had lost his marbles. "A huge pile of stinking garbage...? Ya really feelin' allright?"

Garbage?

Well, that was just plain rude. Calling the creature garbage...if he was some kind of troll thing that was lurking around them, maybe Cloud could understand but he was really something else. The demon was like no one Cloud had ever seen...

Oh.

Reno's garbage can was in the way.

Never mind then.

But that meant Reno couldn't see the creature for whatever reason. Maybe Vincent would know what was going on and could help clear everything up, since he did seem to know a lot more about this sort of thing. His parents knew even more than he did, and he had a whole library in his house full of books on the occult. Cloud was pretty sure their answer could be in there somewhere, just waiting to be found. He glanced up to see if the creature had misheard what Reno said.

Before Reno could ask again if Cloud was feeling okay his cell phone vibrated and he read the incoming message with a blank expression. "Ah, Vincent says he busy. Somethin' about some voodoo festival or something... But we can come by later and he'll see what he can do."

Reno shrugged and finished his plate, turning around in an acrobatic movement without leaving his seat to set the empty plate atop a mountain of other dirty plates that swayed dangerously, but didn't tumble. "Wanna hang out till then?"

Sephiroth himself hadn't noticed the insult, as he was still busy trying to make sense of the microwave. Was this witchcraft? If it was it was the most useless thing he had ever seen. It was nothing more than a dirty, empty box... or was it?

Cloud sighed as he lapped the syrup from the pancakes off his fingers. "That's okay I guess. I mean, he'll be back later right? So we'll just go see him when he gets home. Maybe ghosts only come out at night." Surely the creature staring intently at the microwave wouldn't mind waiting a few more hours to go home. Sitting back and patting his stomach Cloud smiled over at Reno, "Thanks for the food, and thanks for taking care of me last night too. Do you want to go for some fresh air maybe? We can go down to the river."

"Yeah, let's get outta here, yo." And they better hurry before his mom came back from grocery shopping and made them clean up the mess... Getting up from his chair Reno grabbed his jacket and the keys. Sephiroth barely noticed them leaving the kitchen until an invisible force pulled him away from his inspection and made him grudgingly follow them.

"What is it now," he asked the blond boy, annoyed.

"We're going to the river!" Cloud whispered to him as Reno swung the noisy front door open. "Since Vincent isn't home yet. He'll be back later though. Uh...that's what we're doing!" he added, noticing the funny look Reno gave him.

Cloud took a breath of fresh air as he stepped outside. He loved this time of year, there were flowers everywhere and someone was baking bread so there were some gorgeous smells in the air. He looked back at the creature as he and Reno walked towards the river bank where there were several fat, overfed ducks napping.

"It's so nice out today!" he said, looking back to include the creature in their conversation, "Right?"

"Some fresh air'll really do you some good, yo," Reno snorted, giving Cloud a little clap on the back of his head. "Stop talking funnily or people will be staring." Not that there were many people here, yet. The streets were mostly empty, because people were busy doing family stuff inside. In the afternoon the park would be packed though.

Sephiroth gave the blond haired brat a morose look because he didn't give a damn about a nice day! He needed to go back to his demon world to spread fear and terror into the hearts of... well, pretty much everyone. Also, the birds fled him as soon as they felt his presence, their intuition making them bolt into more safe areas. "This is a waste of time!" he growled, crossing his arms over his naked, blood crusted chest, pulling out his lower lip.

Cloud, although still incredibly nervous of the creature following them, was starting to cheer up now that he was outside and in the sunshine. He liked being out here, even though there might not be much in their town, but it was home. Reno often talked about the two of them packing up and going to the city someday but he wasn't sure if he could live somewhere with so many people around being loud all the time.

"I'm not talking weirdly." He said as he fell into step with Reno, "I'm just saying it's a nice day out and we can hang out here till Vincent comes home, and once he gets back we can talk to the ghost again." He raised his voice a little to make sure the creature had heard, because he most certainly did not want him to get mad and cover him in that scary fog. Cloud shivered and tried not to think too much about it as he stepped over the small stone wall that divided the river back from the path, avoiding the small flowers that grew between the cracks as he did so. The sooner this was over, the better.

"Yeah, whatever..." Reno kicked at a stone and watched it tumble through the grass, hands shoved into his pockets. The sun was getting warmer and a few birds flew through the cloudless sky above them.

Sephiroth had the distinct feeling that he had been here before, even though things looked different. But he got that feeling, a strange something stirring up somewhere deep inside him and he frowned, looking around the annoyingly sunny, flowery and happy park.

"Sooo..." Reno stretched, deliberately looking at some boring tree so he didn't have to look at Cloud. "Whatcha think about Vince?"

"I like him." Cloud announced as he pulled up some blades of grass, a bad habit he picked up from Reno. "I know we've only known him a few months, but he's cool. I know his family is a little strange but I don't think it's rubbed off on him too much. It's not like strangeness is contagious or anything. And he's fun to hang out with, he knows lots of things."

Cloud still didn't know a huge amount about Vincent since he was pretty quiet, but he was quickly opening up to them. The strange boy had spent most of his life in his mansion with his parents and family who were all a little too interested in the occult as well as keeping him away from any children who might fill his mind with fluff, and teachers who would try to impart their "irrelevant" facts. They had all kinds of weird items decorating their home, but none of those things seemed to faze Vincent. He became much more excited when they took him out for something sweet to eat or back to Reno's to play one of his many video games. Vincent had just enrolled in their school this year after Reno had started meeting with him when he had come out to pick up some unusual ingredients and Reno convinced him that he needed to spend more time with them and other kids. Vincent convinced his parents that going to school would allow him to study social interaction and they agreed that this was an area where they might have overlooked.

"Yeah, he's pretty creepy sometimes, but otherwise he's okay," Reno shrugged off-handedly, feeling his cheeks heat up. Fumbling with his pocket he summoned a half-smoked cigarette he had snatched from the ashtray this morning, and lighted it. "You think he likes us?" he then queried, actually meaning to ask if Cloud thought Vincent might like _him_.

Sephiroth stood beside the bench where the boys had settled down and felt ignored. His eyes wandered over the trees and the little river and he still couldn't shake off the feeling of familiarity. "Where's this place?" he finally asked slowly.

Cloud laughed at Reno when he called Vincent creepy. "I don't think he can help the creepiness when he lives in a house with a noose for a curtain chord." He couldn't help notice the faint blush on Reno's cheeks. "Yeah, I think he likes us. I mean, he always texts back right away, and he'll always think of excuses to stay out longer, he'll come with us pretty much anywhere as long as we're together. Well..." he smiled, "as long as you're here. Here at the uh...river. Of our town. Where the bridge was built years ago to welcome some famous general." Cloud didn't want to ignore the creature behind him, even though he'd much rather talk about Reno's very obvious feelings towards Vincent. He had started noticing it recently.

Every time the three of them got together Reno would continuously annoy and tease Vincent until he got the reaction that he wanted. In the beginning Vincent was confused and never knew how to react to the teasing, but he was getting better at reacting now and they could count on him to come up with some incredibly original and old-fashioned insults to throw back at Reno.

Suddenly Cloud sneezed and turned his head back to make sure the creature hadn't wandered off.

Reno was too busy inwardly fretting over what Cloud had said and trying not to show it on the outside to notice the strange answer. "You think so?" he asked harmlessly, as if he didn't care at all, but godsdammit, he cared so freakin' much! "Well, I kinda got him outta that Adam's Family house o' his..."

Ignoring the redheaded boy Sephiroth stared at the stone bridge that was a few feet away from him with narrowed eyes. It was very old, but had been maintained well. There was a plate installed on one of the stone walls and he went there to read it, but bounced against the invisible wall. Snapping his head back at the blond boy he growled, "Move!" Cloud stood up quickly once the order was barked at him, but he did his best to make it took like a yawn and hoped Reno didn't notice. He walked towards the bridge where the creature was waiting continued talking to Reno as he did so.

"That's true, you know..." he began, "Mom said she knew that Mr and Mrs Valentine had a kid but they never really let him play with anyone that wasn't in his family. You told him to come to school and hang out with us and that's amazing. It must be strange for him though, having to be with so many people at once after having such a quiet life for so long. So yeah, I think he likes us. You especially, since I would never have been brave enough to arrive at his house and demand to see his parents!" Cloud laughed "I think they like you too!"

"Nah, they hate my guts!" Reno shivered at the thought of the rest of Vincent's family. And the abhorrent tea they made to poison him! He took a drag from his cigarette, being unusually quiet, before he could muster his courage and ask "You think he likes me... a lot?" His damn blush deepened and he still didn't want to look at Cloud. But Cloud was his best friend, so who else should he ask such questions?

One thing he was not used to was being ignored. It seemed that the blond haired kid was prone to making a habit of that though. "Move!" Sephiroth growled, his voice booming through the park like thunder from the sky. He wondered if that would impress the kid. He may look cute and harmless, but he was anything but, Sephiroth could feel it in his bones! That child was evil. Evil!

Cloud stiffened as the creature shouted at him. Reno would definitely hear him if he kept this up, half the town would hear him! He walked up closer to the plaque that the creature seemed so interested in. He should definitely take a picture of the plaque and add it to the project, maybe he could do a rubbing of the stone on the bridge and add that too, and he could make a flower pressing and it could look really good. Ignoring the anger radiating from the demon's very being, he turned back towards Reno.

"I do Reno, I really do." He tilted his head a little as he smiled. "At first I think he was just shy but anyone would be if they were in his shoes, and that's why he didn't really say much to us. But you know, he's not really like that as much anymore. He's much more relaxed and yeah he's kind of crazy but that just makes him more fun to hang out with! And I see him smile whenever you lean up against him or call him a vampire, he smiles at you and he doesn't smile like me that way." Cloud laughed. "You're both insane."

"Ah, well who could resist a dashing fellow like me anyway, yo," Reno grinned, throwing his cigarette to the ground and following Cloud to the bridge. "I just got no friggin' idea how to break the news to him, you know?" As a huge crowd of birds flew off a tree he looked up, watching them move away from the park. It looked a bit as if every single bird in the park had decided to fly up at the same time. Strange.

As they finally got their skinny asses moving Sephiroth grumpily marched up to the plaque to study it. The letters were different, simpler than the ones he knew, but well. It stated a story about a war and a man who had fought in there. He had become a General, after his troops had managed to fend off the enemy, which was attributed mostly to the General's tactics and endurance. After the war was over and a lot of villages had been burnt, the General decided to settle down. His soldiers had felt so obliged to him that they followed and settled down together, founding this town called 'Midgard'. Sephiroth frowned. That sounded kind of familiar too.

As Sephiroth studied the plaque Cloud watched after the birds too. Did they know the creature beside him was there? His mom always said animals knew when things were wrong. He tried not to worry about how people would react if animals continued to run away from him and instead focused on being cheerful for Reno.

"Well, you know, you could always take him down to the shrine sometime, he likes it there. Maybe you could bring him a brownie and tell him that you like him and you want to be with him. Ask him if he understands what that means because I don't think he'll get it right away, but once you explain I think he'll be really happy that you asked."

He shoved against Reno playfully, "Do you think you could be serious long enough to ask him? You'll have to talk about feelings, too!"

Reno shoved back, maybe a bit too hard, and then announced, blank faced, "No. I can't do this shit." He sighed and pulled a hand through his hair, but then he jumped when suddenly his cellphone went off.

"Goddamit!" he shrieked, clutching at his heart as he looked at the caller's ID. Then he snapped the phone open and yelled "What the hell Vince, you just gave me a damn heart attack! ... What?... No, I'm not talking to you from the other world... What's that supposed to mean, 'too bad'?... I see... Listen you crazy dipshit, if I ever happen to die and get a chance to call you I will gladly tell your parents that you have managed a connection to the beyond and that they can cut back your weekly hours of medium-practice but how about we focus on the important matters now? You free for the ghost summoning or what?... Yeah. We'll come over now. Bye."

He turned his cell phone off and took a deep breath to calm his wildly beating heart. "Speak of the devil. Let's go, I wanna finish this damn homework asap."

Cloud pulled back a bit, a little hurt by Reno's sudden change in demeanour. "Alright, we should go then." He reached out to grab Reno's hand before he stormed off, "Think about it, alright? Just because you're talking about your feelings, it won't change the way Vincent or I see you. If you're worried that we'll think less of you or anything like that, don't worry, you'll still be the same old idiot that you ever where."

"...Whatever," Reno muttered, trying to hide his embarrassment. They went back the way they had come and Sephiroth followed. "What is it now," he asked in that clipped, slightly unnerved tone of his.

Cloud felt a slight pull as they turned away from the bridge. He noticed the creature following them anyway, which was a good sign. He was still surprised that he hadn't tried to get away from them, but maybe he could only go back the way he came. And he only had one wing, what had happened to the other one? He remembered reading a book once about an angel who was banished from heaven. His wings were torn off so that he could never return and he would have to walk among humans forever – maybe that's what the creature was. A fallen angel.

"It shouldn't take too long to get back to Vincent's house, and we'll be talking to the ghost before you know it, this project will be finished and we won't have to do anything like this ever again." Cloud was turned towards Reno but he was speaking to the creature behind him.

"Let's hope that this time it works, yo. We ain't got any other option since Vince got us banned from the library..." Reno sighed and they walked the rest of the way in silence. The town was deserted still, but Reno didn't care. It always was especially quiet around Vincent's house, because people avoided the old mansion like the plague. Stepping up to the front door he pulled the shrieking door knob and it was instantly opened by an old hag with wild white hair and a milky eye that peaked at them through the thin slid of the opened door.

"What?" she said in a creepy old hag's voice, making Reno flinch. Gods, he hated Vincent's family and he could have sworn he saw the witch grinning behind the door for creeping the shit out of him! Cloud tried not to laugh at Reno's expression. Vincent's grandmother was pretty strange but she seemed harmless enough. He was about to ask her how her day was when something caught his eye. He turned to look but of course, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was probably one of Vincent's wind chimes reflecting the sunlight. He turned back when –

Wait.

There it was again, something shiny, something moving and...glittery? What could that possibly be? The creature was standing still and looking up at the roof of the mansion where there were several stone gargoyles and angels higher up, so he wouldn't have seen it anyway.

Cloud turned all the way around, trying to find the source of the shiny something.

"You lettin' us in now or what? Vincent's waiting for us, we gotta do homework...M'am." Reno almost choked on the last word. The woman narrowed her eye on him and said hollowly " You bring evil into my house." But she said that every time they came. Finally she reluctantly stepped away from the door.

"You comin', Cloud?" Reno pulled his friend by the sleeve to get his attention.

Sephiroth was narrowly focused on getting back so he didn't see anything left or right from his goal and brazenly stepped into the house through the wall. He vaguely remembered having been here yesterday, but he really didn't care. As long as he got back to his own world, now.

Cloud followed Reno in (he didn't have much choice though, he didn't want Reno to rip his sleeve off) and he saw the creature march in as well. He looked pretty determined to get home as fast as possible. 'I must have imagined the sparkle...' he thought.

"Vincent is in his room, you may enter as long as you" – Grandmother Valentine pointed at Cloud – "swear to deal with that evil presence."

"E-evil?" he stuttered, "I don't have an evil presence, where would I get one of those? And even if I did have one, which I don't, I'd certainly let Vincent take care of it and send it back to wherever it came from. We'll be going now..."

The Valentine woman gave him another sharp look and then her eyes wandered off into space to stare at Sephiroth, but he was oblivious to her. Instead the demon followed Reno who jumped up the stairs as fast as he could. Vincent's room was at the end of the hall and he entered without knocking, catching Vincent flinching and quickly putting down a book that he had been reading on his bed.

"Yo dude. Whatcha reading there? Porn?" Reno's grin was lewd and teasing as he walked up to the boy to snatch the book out of his hand.

"Uhm...no! Of course not, eww. Give me my book back Reno!" Vincent quickly stood and tried to take his book back but Reno held it just out of his grasp. He could feel his skin starting to warm up as Reno flipped though his book. Oh Gods, how was he going to explain it, Reno would never take him seriously again and he would tell Cloud and they would both judge him and oh Gods...

"'How to make friends'..." Reno read slowly, his gaudy expression slipping. It would have been the perfect opportunity to make fun of Vincent, but he somehow got a feeling that now was not the time. Vincent looked afraid, even though he tried to hide it. Thus Reno summoned an easygoing grin and lightly hit Vincent on the head with his book before handing it back to him. "Moron, you ain't needin' that. Unless... don't tell me you plan on finding other friends!" Making a scandalized face, Reno puffed out his chest and put a hand on his hip. "How _could_ you, after all we have done for you! Cloud, get in here, he's _cheating_ on us!"

Vincent started to laugh at Reno's reaction. He rubbed his head and placed the book on his locker. "I'm not cheating on you! Ahm, that is, you or Cloud, you two are all I need. That book was for study, more than anything, it was my parents' idea to study social behaviour." He relaxed back onto his bed as Cloud arrived to join them. He looked a lot better since last night, but he was still noticeably on edge. Maybe Vincent had been too hard on him during their session.

"I'm so tired, Mother and Father took me to every stall to pick up a huge range of ingredients for their teas, and I got a new deck of Tarot cards if you would care for me to tell you your future?" he smiled up at them, more himself now that the danger of being abandoned had left.

"Maybe later. Cloud's hell-bent on meeting that ghost again, yo," the redhead smirked. He sat down on the bed next to Vincent, feeling his heartbeat speeding up, so he tried to concentrate on something else. "What's that?" he said, pushing a paper on the floor. It had the alphabet on it and a 'yes' and 'no' sign. It looked like a quickly made Oujia board. "Ya grandpa won't give you the fancy board?" Not that Reno was too keen on repeating the experience from last night. It had creeped him out.

And he had a feeling that this time... it would only get worse.

Tbc?

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><p><strong>Yay, more reviews to reply to ^_^ (funkysockzlover_BMIK_ replying**)

Catslock – Aw thank you! It's a good thing Cloud's convinced he's in a dream or it might have taken him a lot longer to fall asleep with a demon, Sephy glaring at him all night long! _Haha, I bet if he could have Sephiroth would have done a lot more than tossing Cloud out of his bed XD I'm happy you like it so far!_

NamiFukao – Im so glad you liked it! Poor Seph is trying to be threatening and menacing but nobody wants to appreciate all his hard work XD _Thank you! Aw, I'm sure even Sephiroth will eventually succumb to Cloud's cuteness! He just has to try harder ;)_

BlackDomina71 – He must have bumped his head pretty hard and that knocked some sense out of it XD I think he'll just be getting more and more enraged until he finally gets some answers!_ Glad you like it! Poor Cloud is so confused, and Sephiroth isn't helping much XD They will have to find a way to deal with it!_

Fireotaku18 – He's not a happy demon right now! _Hahaha, yes, how shameful! Happy you liked it :)_

yiu – He still thinks he's dreaming so he's allowed to be a little stranger than usual! XD _Cloud is cute, isn't he? I wanna smother him with cuddles XD Thanks for commenting!_

UltimateNinjaOfDoom – That just about sums it up but there'll be much more to come! _Oh, we haven't seen half of Vincent's crazy family yet! But we will :D Thanks for your review!_

Emriel – I'm glad you like out happy little Cloud! I think he's a lot more fun to write this way than moody Cloud. _I like happy, adorable Cloud too XD I'm happy you like our take an Sephiroth!_

**As always comments, thoughts and criticism is very much appreciated!  
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**Next chapter: Will the boys be able to send Sephiroth back? And what else might they accidentally summon? Dun-dun!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello there, sorry for the long wait! We both had a crazy busy time, sorry for the long wait! We hope you enjoy the new chapter though^^ **

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><p><strong>Oujia<strong>

*Chapter 4*

Vincent shook his head. "I brought it back to him this morning, he keeps it in his garden shed because apparently it's easier for spirits to come and go, so it was easy enough to return it. I didn't want my parents to notice I had it, I did have to leave quite late last night to retrieve it, and they're not too fond of me leaving the house that late." He sighed, "You did let me know you needed it at an unusual hour. I was just trying to re-create it in case I couldn't get it back again." He looked at Cloud, confused. "YOU want to meet with ghosts again? After what happened last night? I thought you might have been scarred for life."

Cloud sat down on Vincent's other side, still with that slightly vacant expression on his face. "Don't worry, I'm fine now," he said. "I think it might have been the atmosphere that scared me more than anything. Or it might have been the cold. Your basement is freezing."

Suddenly, Cloud twitched and his eyes wandered over to stare at the doorframe. "Um..the sooner we get started, the better, I think!" he laughed shakily.

Vincent quickly glanced over to the door to see what had caught Cloud's attention. There was nobody there, was Cloud still doing his talking-to-thin-air-act to try and teach them a lesson for freaking him out last night?

"Yeah, right? I was surprised too. But chocobo-head insisted." Reno sighed, stealing another quick glance at Vincent. The boy's raven black hair spilled over his shoulders and it looked so shiny and smooth... Reno felt the overwhelming urge to tug at it, but he kept his twitching hands to himself.

Meanwhile Sephiroth had a look through the messy room before his eyes settled on the dark haired, pale youth. "You. Have you been summoned against your will too?" Sephiroth didn't recognize the demon, but then again there were hundreds of thousands of demonic ghosts in the afterworld.

Vincent gave Cloud a very confused look as his friend ducked his head down and his shoulders and started to shake. Was he...crying?

"Don't be upset Cloud, last night was a once off, I'm sure. The next ghost will definitely NOT be a total pervert and we can do the summoning in my room so there will be no chance of you passing out from the cold." he reached out to pat Cloud's hair a little awkwardly, since he wasn't used to too much contact with people who weren't his family. Still, he believed that this was what people usually did in situations like this.

Cloud could feel Vincent's fingers in his spiky hair but he could barely hear him as he struggled not to laugh out loud. This was the second time Vince had been mistaken for a demon, and this time it was by a creature who very might be a demon itself! He could see it though, Vincent was incredibly pale and his dark hair was like a sudden splash of ink on a clear page, and he was almost always dressed in black. He spoke properly and had good posture, so maybe the creature following him had taken a liking to him since they acted similarly. When Sephiroth wasn't shouting, that is.

"Ah..haha..I'm fine, sorry again." Cloud sniffed and tried to get his giggles under control.

Sephiroth himself was slowly getting impatient.

Why was the demon talking to lowly humans, but ignoring him?!

Didn't he know who Sephiroth was?!

Straightening to his full height, the demon towered over the dark haired creature, crossing his arms. "Answer me!"

Cloud jumped as the demon snapped at Vincent again, but he tried his best to turn it into a bounce so he didn't look too crazy. He rocked around on the bed. He wanted more than anything for the black fog to re-appear so it would take the demon away, back to wherever it came from and out of his life.

"Vincent Valentine." Cloud began, to somewhat pacify the situation and letting Sephiroth know that Vincent was actually human... "Would you do me the honour of telling me if you would know how to contact the same ghost that we talked to last night?"

What he really wanted to know, of course, was if he or his parents would ever know what to do if, in a hypothetical situation, a demon was to appear in this world and then said demon wanted to go back home but for some reason it couldn't and it could only talk to one person and that person didn't know how to send it home but a ghost that had already talked to the person might know, could that ghost be contacted again? Cloud took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

Vincent was confused at the sudden formality of Cloud's tone. "Um...I'm sure I could. All we have to do is do everything we did last time, but in the dining room." He looked over at Reno. "Are you alright with the idea?"

"Yeah sure, let's go and get this over with." Reno got up from the bed and leaned over to get the make-shift Oujia board. Hm, Vincent had glued this together... he wanted to hectically sneak it under his shirt and fanboy over it later, but again, he refrained. He was way too cool for this.

Way too cool.

Sephiroth frowned and unfolded his arms, imperiously reaching out and trying to poke Vincent in the eye to reprimand him and punish him for his insolence, but his finger went through, not hitting anything solid. Disbelievingly he stared down at the shivering youth, only now noticing his strong smell.

It couldn't be that... this was a human being?

His green gaze snapped over to Cloud for an explanation. Coming to think of it, hadn't that boy been with them last night too? Sephiroth had been too furious to pay much attention to anyone but the blond haired menace...

Vincent shivered as soon as the demon's finger made contact with him. He felt cold, but from the inside, like someone had cracked a raw egg on his head and it was currently trickling down his insides. He felt Cloud squeeze his arm as he took a shuddering breath. What on earth had made him feel like that? Somebody must be standing on his grave, as his grandmother would say.

"Let's go downstairs..." Cloud pulled Vincent along with him. He was more than a little worried at the demon's sudden behaviour. Why did he poke Vincent? What if he got angrier? What if it started off as a poke and it ended with a sword through the chest? At least it didn't seem to have hurt Vincent. He stared over at Reno – this would be the perfect time for him to come over, wrap his arm around Vincent and say he was keeping him warm and they would finally get together.

However Reno didn't seem to be in a very receptive mood today, even as he was willing his thoughts at the back of his spiky red head.

Frustrated at the lack of answer, Sephiroth had no choice but to follow them downstairs. This house was strange, there were signs of witchcraft and strong bans to keep ghosts and demons away. They were not enough to make Sephiroth feel more than an unpleasant tingling, but as he took a closer look the aura lazily radiating around the Vincent-boy was not a demonic one. Also, the name Valentine sounded vaguely familiar...

"I hope your grandma is off for her nap, yo. Don't wanna know what kinda brain eating zombies will come out of the dark if she's around," Reno said over his shoulder as he walked into the living room. It was a surprisingly normal looking living room, with a modern black leather couch, a few comfortable chairs and a stylish small glass table. There even was a TV and a fire place. It would have been a non-creepy room, if it hadn't been for the orderly arranged urns above the fireplace that held the cold ashes of Vincent's ancestors up to the fifth generation.

Vincent laughed, still a little shaken up from the strange feeling inside him. Cloud stayed close beside him since Reno showed no intention of slowing down. "Reno's nervous I guess" he thought to himself, "Maybe he doesn't want to say anything to Vincent in front of me. After this whole situation is over and done with, I'll talk to him again and maybe they can get together."

Out of habit, Vincent waved over at the urns before he sat down on the leather couch. Cloud sat beside him, lancing over at the demon as he did so. He was starting to feel dizzy and as if he lived in two dimensions at the same time – one the one hand he was busy acting normal and keeping track of Vincent and Reno's shy circling each other. And then he also had to take care of that scary demon who kept following him. It was all a bit overwhelming and unreal, but Cloud tried to manage as best as he could.

"We'll probably need to use Grandfather's board. It probably has more magic in it than a scrap of paper. I know it has an interesting history, but it's been a while since I've heard the story." Vincent sat back and thought to himself. "Since you're both so eager to have this summoning as fast as possible, let me head over to Grandfathers right now. I'll bring the board back and we can begin."

"We can come with you!" Cloud said. He knew the demon would be furious to leave right away, but if it was just a quick walk down the road to collect the special board, then it would all be worth it. He could be back where he came from before sundown if everything went according to plan.

"Nah, come on, just let Vince get the board. Until he comes back you can get into ghosty summoning mood or something." Reno flopped down on the sofa and watched as Vincent left.

Discreetly, he folded the makeshift Oujia board and slipped it into a pocket.

Sephiroth watched the party with distaste, but there was nothing he could do about it. They were so painstakingly slow! He secretly wished that he could flop down on the couch too, expressing his frustration by sullenly lounging on the comfortable looking leather. But he had to maintain an image here or the blond boy would never get his ass up to send him back to the demon world. 'That boy is so easily distracted...' Sephiroth thought grumpily to himself as his attention got caught by a black box with a shiny surface.

Cloud lay back into the leather couch and yawned. "What should we do to make the place spooky? It's already pretty spooky. Should we draw the curtains? Um..maybe we could light some candles? Or we could get some sheets and hide under them and pretend we're ghosts and that way the spirit will think he's among friends?"

He couldn't help but notice the demon wandering around. He seemed to have an unusual attraction to shiny things. Maybe they didn't have shiny things where he came from?

"Hey Reno..." he asked, as an idea began to come together in his mind, "Should I turn the TV on?"

Reno's lazy gaze glided over to the blind TV. For a second he thought he had seen something strange reflecting in the screen. With a shiver he sat up, but it was gone. "Uhm... maybe not. Vince should be back any sec." And who knew what would come out of this "TV". Everything in this house was dangerous and creepy.

Cloud shrugged and started walking around instead, too fidgety and nervous to stay seated. He was starting to worry at the prospect of meeting the ghost again. He was fine with it earlier, but his whole day had been so surreal. 'I can't believe I'm not freaking out, why aren't I freaking out, what's wrong with me...'

Outside, Vincent had already pushed open the incredibly rusted gate in their oversized and slightly overgrown back garden with some difficulty to make his way to his grandfather's house. It wasn't much compared to his own home, more of a glorified garden shed than anything, but Vincent's grandfather preferred to spend his time as close as he could to his family without actually visiting them. He'd been horribly jumpy when he used to live with them and often stared into corners of a room or at blank walls like he could see something that was never there, his eyes twitching, following something only he could see. It was easier for everyone when he decided to move out.

Vincent's family took it in turns to bring food out to him, as he usually became so involved in one project or other that he could go days without eating anything.

It didn't take him too long before the garden leading to the shed became more tangled with herbs and unusual plants that his grandfather had grown. He ducked under the wind chimes and dream catchers that hung from the bare branches of the trees that laced together overhead to create a tunnel of twigs and string. Finally the stone path that had been engraved with symbols Vincent didn't recognise became more visible and the shed came into view, but it was a little more difficult to make out than usual.

His grandfather was sitting outside a paintbrush in his hand, feverishly painting the shed with greens and browns so it was almost indistinguishable from the trees and shrubs in the background. There were more stones with strange shapes arranged in what could have been a precise pattern but they could also have been thrown there in a hurry. Not wanting to disturb his grandfather for fear he might be asked to joining in on the paining, Vincent quickly slipped inside the shed and picked the board up from the shelf where it lay, and carried it outside. He padded quietly along the path as his grandfather took no notice of him and continued to mutter protection spells to himself.

Something was here, nearby, where it had no business being. Something bad, something evil and incredibly powerful. Grandfather Valentine wouldn't taking any chances; the creature had to be destroyed.

Tbc?

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><p><strong>Review replies, yay *(^_^)* (Funkysockzlover_BMIK_ replying)**

InbetweenersDanceYo - Of course we will! We're busy bees but we'll keep the chapters coming! _Exactly! Please bear with us and be patient^^_

BlissfulGP - Haha I hope you liked what happened! _Yupp, thanks for reading!_

Fireotaku18 - Thank you so much! :D _Thank you, happy you liked it!_

Wingsong5555 - Did we end up confusing you some more with this chapter? XD _Oh, there'll be a lot of confusion XD_

Emriel - Thank you for reading! _Yes, and you're very welcome^^_

fantasi88 - Aww this is one of my favourite reviews :D i'm sorry you had to wait so long for an update but I hope the wait was worth it! 3 _Yay, I'm happy you liked it! Sorry for the long wait!_

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